Dryers

Here's an anecdote for those who don't realize the extent of energy consumption in America. As this NYT piece quotes, There are 88 million dryers in America. If Americans stopped using them for 6-months, the USA would decrease its carbon emission by almost 4 percent. Growing up in Israel, I can't think of anyone I knew that had a dryer; If it weren't for the movies I wouldn't know they existed. (Anyone care to comment on the dryer-index of contemporary Israeli families?) Makes sense because the climate in Israel is laundry friendly. In America, clotheslines are endemic of poverty. Many leases forbid their use. No one, not even the dwellers of Arizona and Nevada, not even the die-hard ecologists use a clothesline.

Trains and planes

A French TGV train broke the speed record today at 547 Km/h. At their normal running speed (300 Km/h), this train would take just over an hour to get from South Station in Boston to Penn Station. No airport congestion or traffic jams, and it's infinitely more energy efficient than the number of planes it would take to haul the same amount of people. At 300 Km/h, it would take 12 minutes to get from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. At 547 km/h, the train needs 30 kilometers to come to a halt. That's half that distance.